The guardian;-Parliamentary session is called after ‘special’ blood of Ethiopian-born MP is rejected by emergency services srael‘s president, Shimon Peres, has criticised the refusal of the country’s emergency medical services to accept a blood donation from an Ethiopian-born member of parliament on the grounds that it was a “special kind” of blood – a move that has prompted charges of racism.Pnina Tamano-Shata, who has lived in Israel since she was three and served in the Israeli army, described the policy of rejecting blood donations from Israeli citizens born in Ethiopia as shameful and insulting.
The politician, who represented Israel at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in Johannesburg this week, was told by officials of Magen David Adom (MDA) that she had “the special kind of Jewish-Ethiopian blood” which could not be accepted by the medical service. They subsequently offered to take a blood donation, but said it would be frozen and not used in any medical procedure.
Eilat Shinar, the director of the MDA’s blood service, said ministry of health regulations prohibited the use of blood donations from people who had lived for more than a year in countries with a high rate of HIV infection. “Those individuals who still want to donate may do so, but the transfusion will not be used, as it is forbidden,” she said.
Peres said all Israeli citizens should be allowed to donate blood: “There can be no differentiation between one blood and the other in the state of Israel. All citizens are equal … The Ethiopian people are precious to the state of Israel.”
The parliamentary health committee is to examine the issue in an emergency session next week.
Writing in the Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronoth, Tamano-Shata said: “Although I have lived in Israel since I was three years old, even though I served in the [army] and even though I’m a member of the Knesset [the Israeli parliament], I am still not good enough to donate blood. Why? Why is my blood inferior to yours?”
She added: “It is the story of an entire community, of tens of thousands of people walking about with a feeling of humiliation … that their blood is good enough for the military and reserve service but not good enough to save lives.”
Parliamentary colleagues across the political spectrum said the regulations should be changed. Uri Ariel, from the rightwing Jewish Home party, said that he was “shocked to hear that someone thinks that the blood of … Ethiopian Jews is less red than the blood of the rest of us”.
Ahmed Tibi, of the Arab Movement for Change, described the policy as disgraceful. “Israeli society and its systems continue to be infected by the deadly virus of racism, aimed at times against Ethiopians and many other times against Arabs.”
The policy of discarding blood donations from Ethiopian-born Israelis was disclosed in the mid-1990s. The blood of Israeli citizens who have spent long periods in the UK is also rejected because of fears over bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease.
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